1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of cosmetology, and, more particularly, relates to devices and methods for easily, quickly and accurately applying French tip-style fingernail and toenail treatments.
2. Related Art
Decorating finger and toe nails is an art that has been practiced since as early as the ancient Incas. One style of manicure is called the “French” or “FrenchTip” manicure, and is designed to resemble natural nails. The French manicure is characterized by the use of a natural pink base color with a curved white tip, making it one of the most popular and well known color schemes to be used. French manicures are believed to have originated in 18th century Paris and are still enormously popular today.
Applying the French manicure effect, and, in particular, the curved white tip requires great care, and is a very tedious, labor and time-intensive exercise. First, a curved white tip is painted, and then the pink base color is applied thereover. There are a number of techniques that have been developed to create the curved white tip, but all require a manual application of either brushed on liquid or silica powder using hand and eye coordination.
One device to assist in the shaping of the line of demarcation between the pink base and the white tip is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,638,837 and 5,654,090 to Juhl et al. However, the devices of Juhl still require the manual painting of polish to create the white tip, and do not use the popular and more accurate silica powder based coloring agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,704 to Dombeck discloses a French manicure template which operates similar to the Juhl product, in that the curved white tip still must be manually painted on.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,484 to Lube, et. al. discloses a kit for performing a cosmetic nail treatment, which, again, requires the use of a brush to paint the white tip in the desired shape.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2011/0100389 to Tran discloses a French manicure scraper tool which is placed over the fingertip and provides a template around which to paint the curved white tip.
Finally, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2010/0313904 to Garinger discloses a template in the form of a shield member which exposes a portion of the fingernail to receive the curved white tip, and then requires the use of a secondary feature of the device to apply a second nail paint to the entire nail. The Garinger device is cumbersome and requires careful manipulation of the two structural features of the device to accomplish the task.
Presently, it has become popular to use acrylic nail powder to apply French manicures, which is even harder to apply in a consistent manner with existing apparatus and methods.
All of the devices known to the inventor require undue manual accuracy and time to achieve a professional looking result. Given the number of manicures and pedicures a nail technician performs each day, if the method of applying the curved white tip in a French manicure can be simplified, the accuracy of the resulting job can be improved, and the physical and mental concentration exerted, and the tedium experienced, by the technician can be reduced.
Therefore, it is a principal object of this invention to make it easier on nail technicians and do-it-yourselfers at home to apply a French manicure.
It is also an object of this invention to increase the degree of accuracy and predictability of the outcome of a French manicure.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method which permits the rapid and consistent application of a French manicure.